Clare Woods
Clare Woods’ (b. 1972) new print series, entitled The Difference Between Now and Then, depicts overflowing vases of cut flowers and foliage. The works explore themes of impermanence and vulnerability, serving as a reminder of fleeting mortality.
Having previously depicted landscapes, portraiture and the human form, flowers are a recent motif in Woods’ work, subject matter inspired by a photograph she took of a vase of dying peonies in a palazzo in Venice several years ago. Woods draws inspiration from photographs found from diverse sources such as books, magazines and the internet. She reinterprets the found imagery, cropping or repositioning the subjects so that they begin to teeter on the edge of legibility.
Woods was scheduled to have her first solo exhibition at Cristea Roberts Gallery earlier this year. This exhibition, a major body of new prints and collages by the artist, entitled The Great Unknown, will now take place in Spring 2021.
Prints from The Difference Between Now and Then are available to purchase individually or as a set. Please view the works below and contact sales@cristearoberts.com if you require any further information or would like to book an appointment to view the prints at the gallery.
“The flowers are quite complicated really. There is obviously a human draw towards flowers – we all seem to like flowers. There seems to be a relationship between humans and flowers and people have been painting and drawing them in vases or in gardens for hundreds of years. For me, the idea of a vase of flowers represents a life span, in a tiny little environment. You’ve got the youth of the buds and then you go through this whole cycle until they droop, and discolour, and then the petals fall off and then they die – it’s a whole life cycle which I am quite interested in. Personally for me I really associate flowers with illness and hospitals: bunches of flowers being sent from the world of the well. Very early on I was interested in Manet’s sixteen little paintings of bouquets of flowers that people brought to him when he was dying. And I think that’s where the obsession with the flowers started.” Clare Woods
